March 22, 2003 - The Chomedey News, Laval’s English community newspaper

Is Big Brother a reality?

BY BARBARA LAVOIE

O Big Brother, where art thou? Is it possible that the world George Orwell created in his futuristic novel, 1984, will soon become a Canadian reality?

These and many other questions were asked by the more than 150 people who crammed into Centre St-Pierre in downtown Montreal for last Monday night’s public forum, Citizens Under Surveillance, organized by the Collectif sur la surveillance électronique.

To raise public awareness about the potential threat to our democratic right to privacy, the collectif brought together a panel of experts who shared their opinions on measures that are part of the federal government’s Bill C-17, the public security act and, more recently, the personal information protection and electronic documents act, and Bill C-36, the anti-terrorism act.

“We want to sensitize more people to the issues at stake with the government’s proposed legal access program. This is the first stage of our campaign to publicize the declaration that we submitted to the federal government,” said André Paradis, an organizer and executive director of the Ligue des droits et libertés du Québec (LDL).

Panellists included: Julius Gray, lawyer and rights advocate; Denis Barrette, surveillance committee member, Ligue des droits et libertés du Québec (LDL); Cédric Laurant, spokesperson, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) in Washington, DC; Jennifer Stoddart, president, Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec; Pierrot Péladeau, researcher, Montreal Clinical Research Institute; and, Martine Eloy, consultant, Féderation des infirmières et des infirmiers du Québec (FIIQ).

They offered extensive background information on the proposed legislation and detailed the impact it could have on their members and all citizens, provided an understanding of the US context and how some Americans are working to protect civil privacy issues, and fielded a number of difficult and thought-provoking questions put to them by the audience.

“It’s a threat to democracy…it encourages conformity,” said Gray, adding “I want us to free ourselves from conformity.”

Since September 11, 2001, the Canadian government began developing policies, programs and introducing amendments to its legislation in order to comply with the Convention on Cyber-Crime that they signed on November 2001 with the Council of Europe, the US, Japan and South Africa. The convention facilitates electronic surveillance of communications by law enforcement and national security agencies.

One of the programs developed and released in August 2002 by the Solicitor General of Canada is Lawful Access. In the consultation document distributed to the telecommunications industry, the technique would allow the interception, search and seizure of information under the legal authority of the criminal code, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act and other acts such as Bill C-17 and C-36.

In their statement drafted, ratified and submitted to the government by the collectif and its five member organizations, Declaration Against the Federal Government’s “Lawful Access” Proposals, they feel the government is trying to impose “undue police surveillance of our communications.”

From their point of view, the government is using the objectives of protecting confidentiality, and fighting child pornography, terrorism and computer viruses as justification for a system that could result in total “electronic eavesdropping.”

“Our entire life could eventually be scanned by the government,” said Barrette.

Lawful access suggests every service provider must have intercept capability installed before providing or upgrading services to the public. That could mean that not only e-mail, but our banking transactions, e-commerce or public e-service transactions, cellular telephones, electronic medical records, and communication networks in universities and hospitals would be under surveillance, and the information could then be forwarded to law enforcement agencies including the department of revenue.

“They (the government’s proposals) are likely to push us into a world where our e-mails, our Internet visits and even our slightest actions could be spied on; a world in which we would be like bacteria under the microscope,” states the declaration.

Consider several other examples of just how intrusive the invasion of our privacy could become. The government intends to apply lawful access to even more than the 115 or so offences that already allow electronic eavesdropping under the criminal code. That would mean investigations could be made on such offences as simple mischief or possession of tobacco on which duties were not paid. Canada would also be permitted to provide other countries with the information it collects.

The declaration was signed by the Ligue des droits et libertés du Québec (LDL), the Féderation des infirmières et des infirmiers du Québec (FIIQ), the Association édudiante facultaire de sciences politiques et droit de l’UQAM (AFESPED-UQAM), the Centre de documentation sur l’éducation des adultes et le condition féminine (CDEACF), and, the World Forum on Community Networking (WFCN).

On the international front, the collectif has joined forces with the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, a coalition of several sectors of Canadian civil society who came together following the adoption of the anti-terrorism act in December 2001. The following organizations are among its members: Canadian Labour Congress, Council of Canadians, CUSO, Oxfam Canada, Amnesty International, Canadian Council of Catholic Bishops, David Suzuki Foundation, Mennonite Central Committee, Greenpeace and World Vision.

When confronted with this kind of information, it’s difficult not to let our imagination drift into the world science-fiction author, George Orwell conjured up so many years ago, but that keeps inching closer and closer to the reality we live in today.

For more information, contact the Ligue des drois et libertés at telephone 514-849-7717 or visit their web site at www.liguedesdroits.ca.